"Mr. Kinvig," interrupted Christian, "I happened to know that father is not risen yet this morning. That bailiff—"
"More shame for him; let him be roused anyhow. See here, though, press your hand on that level—so. Now when Mona puts down that other level—do you see? No! Why don't you look closer?"
"Mr. Kinvig, do you know I half fancy that young fellow the man was asking for must have been an old college chum of mine. If you wouldn't mind sending one of your girls after him to Balladhoo to ask him to meet me in half an hour at the harbor-master's cottage on the quay—"
"Here! Let it be here;" calling "Jane!"
"No, let it be on the quay," said Christian; "I have to go there presently, and it will save time, you know."
"Bless me, man! have you come to your saving days at last?"
Kinvig turned aside, instructed Jane, and resumed the thread of his technical explanations.
"Let me show you this knot again; that bum-bailiff creature was bothering you before. Look now—stand here—so."
"Yes," said Christian, with the resignation of a martyr.
Then Kinvig explained everything afresh, but with an enthusiasm that was sadly damped by Christian's manifest inability to command the complexities of the invention.